tenderness near the mouth

[Lani]

Yesterday I was doing Oreo’s nail trim and general once over and notice the fur looked a little weird on the side of her face. I decided to check on the underside of her chin to make sure all of her matted fur was gone from when she was sick a few weeks ago. This basically consists of my putting her in a bunny burrito, laying her on her back in my lap and lifting her chin up with one hand and going through the fur with the other. Not an easy process with her so determined to keep her chin down. Anyway, the place where her mats had been was on the right side, next to her lip and on her cheek near her whiskers. As I was running my finger through her fur, I noticed she still reacts like that area is tender. She’ll shake her head/give a little shudder and try to bring her paw to her face. She doesn’t react that way if I touch the left side of her mouth, although she obviously doesn’t enjoy it either.

This reaction was partially what caused the vet to decide to check and file her teeth a few weeks ago when she was being seen for stasis. I expected her to keep having that reaction when I was working out the mats. But since there weren’t any mats (the fur weirdness I noticed was apparently just a scruffy look she wanted to try) it troubles me that she’s still reacting this way.  She’s eating/playing/pooping normally so I’m not inclined to rush her to the vet yet but wanted to get your opinions on this.

[Elrohwen]

Do you have a follow up appointment with the vet? Usually they want to see the bunny again after a couple months to make sure the problem isn’t back.

She was never tender about her mouth before? I know mine would struggle if I tried to touch their mouths, but if she’s usually calm then it could be that she’s still healing from her teeth or they’re bothering her again.

[Lani]

We did not schedule a follow up because she’s supposed to have another well-bunny visit in August (they like to see new bunny patients again 6 months after their initial check up ) and the spurs were so tiny they said it would be ok to check them at that time. Prior to her getting her teeth filed/having stasis a few weeks ago, I hadn’t noticed her being sensitive about her mouth primarily because she wouldn’t let me get that close without taking a chunk out of my finger. At the point that she got sick, I’d only had her for a bit over a month so in many ways I was just figuring out what was “normal” for her. This makes it difficult to figure out if she’s just figety about her mouth or if this is a sign of something. So any help/suggestions are appreciated

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

It’s hard to know. The best I can suggest is to watch and ensure she’s eating/drinking/peeing/pooping and wait and see. I will say that none of my bunnies liked theiir chin rubbed-like underneath their mouth. In fact if I try to get near Kahlua’s chin, she’ll draw blood with a bite, then dig me and then run away and stomp. So its hard to say but it may just be that rabbits don’t like to be touched there.

[Author]

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